The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)

The Bourne Ultimatum Synopsis

All he wanted was to disappear. Instead, Jason Bourne is now hunted by the people who made him what he is. Having lost his memory and the one person he loved, he is undeterred by the barrage of bullets and a new generation of highly-trained killers. Bourne has only one objective: to go back to the beginning and find out who he was.

Now, in the new chapter of this espionage series, Bourne will hunt down his past in order to find a future. He must travel from Moscow, Paris, Madrid and London to Tangier and New York City as he continues his quest to find the real Jason Bourne--all the while trying to outmaneuver the scores of cops, federal officers and Interpol agents with him in their crosshairs.

Casino Royale got a lot of credit for re-energizing the baleful Bond franchise with fresh ideas, but all it was really doing was aping the Bourne series. Daniel Craig’s movie is just a pale shadow of the Bourne movies, Jason Bourne did it first and Jason Bourne did it better.

What Bourne does so well and Bond wants is take super-spying and plop it down in the middle of reality. Better still, it does that without losing any of the fun associated with movie screen international espionage. There’s action aplenty in the Bourne movies, and that’s part of why the franchise is getting a movie number three.

Back for the third film The Bourne Ultimatum is director Paul Greengrass. He took over the franchise for movie number two, The Bourne Supremacy and while on hiatus between 2 and 3 he made a little movie called United 93. Don’t be surprised if Greengrass is holding an Oscar before Ultimatum hits theaters.And he deserves it. In spite of his sometimes annoying affinity for the shaky cam, Greengrass is an amazing director.

Also back is Matt Damon as Jason Bourne. When we first heard whispers about Damon playing a spy back in 2002, everyone laughed. Matt Damon as a trained killer? Impossible we said. But he’s brilliant. Matt Damon doesn’t look like a spy, and that’s part of the film’s brilliance. With Damon playing the part, Jason Bourne seems realistic. Real spies are average looking guys who kick amazing amounts of ass. Damon is incredibly convincing at that.

With both Damon and Greengrass back, The Bourne Ultimatum should only improve further on the previous two Bourne efforts. Eat your heart out Daniel Craig, you’re just a wannabe Jason Bourne.

When Matt Damon decided to walk away from the Jason Bourne franchise, it was for one very simple reason: he didn't want to make the movies without director Paul Greengrass involved, and Greengrass decided he was satisfied with the work that he had put into the series. Universal Pictures has moved on, making The Bourne Legacy with Tony Gilroy directing and Jeremy Renner starring, but now it looks like it won't be long until the original star returns.

It’s been seven years since Matt Damon last played super spy Jason Bourne, and the world has missed him. The Bourne Legacy only made fans wish harder that Damon would come back to the franchise that flourished under his performance and the directing of Paul Greengrass.

The big question this raises, of course, is what happens to Renner's new character, Aaron Cross, who was introduced in last year's The Bourne Legacy. According to the new report, this new development isn't "an either/or scenario," suggesting that the next film will see both action heroes working together to try and take down the program that turned them into government-programmed killing machines.

The Bourne Legacy introduced audiences to Cross, who is an agent similar to Jason Bourne and came out of a similar top secret program. At the start of the film he was dependent on specialized medication that made him both physically and mentally superior to most, but by the end of the film - and after a globe-trotting mission - the effects of the meds became permanent.

The Bourne torch may have been passing to Jeremy Renner with next year's The Bourne Legacy, but that doesn't mean that Matt Damon is abandoning the possibility of eventually returning to the role that made him an action star. Now Damon has tossed more fuel on the fire for fans who would like to see him back in the role of amnesiac badass Jason Bourne.

Oh boy. Forget, for a second, that the title sounds like a romantic comedy about a guy who gets amnesia and falls in love with a different girl other than his terrible girlfriend. Are we really talking about implanting memories into a convict?

The world premiere of Paul Greengrass’ Green Zone was held last night in New York, and being the third collaboration between the director and Matt Damon, questions were flying in regards to the future of the Jason Bourne franchise